The Scales of War

Can we go east? There's totally a wall there, so no.

Our heroes start the day anew knowing one of the hostages is dead – Cartnicks was foolish enough to think he could overpower the ettercaps. Heading north with the remaining hostages, Sertanian and Zariska, the Antler-Thistle Six move into the next room. In this room, they find all sorts of rucksacks, furs, and bedrolls – most likely a barracks of some sort. Before heading in too far, Ruddick notices a silhouette of someone, or something, lurking in the shadows. Luckily, the shadow did not notice our party as they prepared to attack.

The hobgoblin, as the shadow appears, is taken by surprise. However, a guard drake also enters the fight. The party engages in a mighty battle with the lead hobgoblin fighting mightily. Both the hobgoblin and drake are slew within minutes. Before the party can head down the stairs, 4 mini hobgoblins appear out of the shadows, along with a larger hobgoblin archer!

Another battle ensues, as the mini goblins prove to be no match for the Antler-Thistle Six. The larger hobgoblin starts retreating down a spiral staircase, as our party pursues him. He takes hit after hit, and with a mighty blow from Aelar, he falls. Weapons are taken for party use, as well as possible monetary gain.

Moving ahead down a hallway, Ruddik takes the lead. Scouting ahead, he sees two gnomes around a fire that appear to be guarding something. Taking notice, there are jail cells all around, along with alcoves nearby. Deep into the jail and alcoves, moans and screams are heard of someone who appears to be human. Could it be another prisoner?

Our heroes move ahead and attack the gnomes. Fire monsters appear to dispatch our would-be heroes, but all are dispatched before long. Upon defeating their enemies, nothing new is noticed right away. Sure, some currency was found upon searching the sarcophagi, but nothing major comes upon them – yet.

Our adventurers notice writing on the eastern wall “Hail Von Erstadt: Ascend with Glory.” Coming further down the hall appears to be moans, groans, and everything but sex noises. Hard to tell, but there is probably only one prisoner down there. The party follows the moans down a set of stairs and finds jail cell after jail cell. Must be where the prisoners were kept until they could be dealt with, our heroes think. In one of the cells is a man who is not in the best shape – looks like he’s seen a lot.

Ruddik, wasting little time, unlocks the cell to free this man. His name is Sertanian and he alludes to the fact that Mirtala, another prisoner might be in mortal danger. He was a cook and might make a pleasant meal for our capturers. Kartenix is also feared dead. Seems Cartnicks wants to rise up against the Ettercaps guarding him and walk out of the castle unscathed. Nice wish!

Our heroes wasted no time in searching for both of these captives. Following a lead from Sertanian, they head toward the area they fear Kartenix is being held. They find all sorts of sticky shit on the floors and walls, along with the Ettercaps that made it. The Ettercaps proved no match for our heroes and were easily overpowered. Could it be that Kartenix managed to overpower these weaklings? Or is the fact that they are still here a grave signal. Upon their defeat, a search of the sticky shit room ensues. In the corner is a pile of sticky shit. Underneath a body is found – Sertanian confirms this is Kartenix, or rather was. Our heroes have had a very busy adventure and rest is needed for them to wipe off the grief of losing one of the hostages.

Once past the barracks, our heroes enter a new room that has a very strange aura about it. A painting of a sinister castle is on the far wall and appears to be flickering a blue light. Very creepy. Exits are noticed on both sides of the room. However, before they can proceed, our heroes are attacked!

A jelly-like creature slithers from the painting, attacking our friends. Before long, the creature splits into two, making it a 2-front fight. Ruddick is knocked out, but stabilized quickly by Jenks. Jenks, making his presence known, gives a valiant effort in destroying the jelly. Though he was sick and having trouble keeping his supper down, he managed to fight well. Unfortunately for our adventurers, the jellies are not the worst of the problem. The jellies died, but then specters appeared!

Stoobs does a flash and a dance and out comes his very potent Radiant Vengeance. Take that you horrid creatures! They inspect the room following the battle and notice writing on the west door “Von U Stadt.” Our heroes enter…

Once Zerriksa was rescued, the adventurers found their way back to the room with the mushrooms. Being careful to avoid them, they made their way to the other side of the room where two ropes appeared to go up…and up into the ceiling. Stoobs takes a quick look at them and climbs the first rope with Aelar in tow. Once up the rope, Stoobs discovers a hall on the next floor. Moreover, there were hobgoblins awaiting our heroes’ arrival!

On the floor, Zerriksa was proving to be quite difficult. Refusing to cooperate, demanding she be taken back to town at once, among other things, Bridgette tires of this and attempts to tie her up. Zerriksa puts up such a fight that Bridgette gives up, as long as Zerriksa cooperates.

Up in the ceiling, Stoobs and Aelar are attempting to rid themselves of the hobgoblin problem. Aelar struggles, but manages to pull one of the goblins out of the hall and down the hole. Meanwhile, Stoobs attacks the remaining hobgoblin. Seeing the fight, Nora heads up the rope to assist the other two. Bridgette heads up the rope, getting hit by the falling goblin, while Ruddick and Jenks await the enemies on the floor.

Stoobs pulls himself out of the hole, but is immediately pushed back down by one of the hobgoblins. Thankfully Jenks was there to break his fall! With our other heroes barely clinging to the rope, the goblins appear to have the advantage. Stabilizing themselves, Bridgette and Aelar climb off the rope into the hall above and dispatch the remaining hobgoblins. However, one of them managed to call for help prior to his disposal.

Bridgette and Aelar follow the remaining hobgoblin into a room above and another fight ensues with more hobgoblins and what appears to be their commander. Nora, not to be left out, attempts to follow, but is pushed back down the hole, hitting Stoobs who has managed to climb back up the rope at this point. Stoobs is not so lucky this time, he is knocked unconscious by the fall. With Bridgette and Aelar the only remaining two in the room, Aelar is knocked out with sudden attacks. Nora manages to make it to the room and assists Bridgette in dispatching the enemies. Nora stabilizes Aelar and Jenks down in the basement stabilizes Stoobs.

Ruddik Klebe rejoins our party after taking the long route around – he went up the other rope and managed to avoid any damage – pretty sneaky! Jenks and Stoobs also rejoin and our party proceeds through the doors in what appears to be their barracks.

After our adventurers secured the entryway, the group went through the back door and down the stairs. They entered a dark room and found many different colored mushrooms growing on the floor. Upon testing them, they discovered the brown mushrooms created a cloud of concealment, the white mushrooms created a shrieking noise, and the gray mushrooms were doomspores. In the back of the room, there were two Rage Drakes awaiting their arrival.

Our heroes took their positions and managed to attack the drakes without hesitation. The drakes proved to be no match for the party who pulled together as one to defeat their adversaries. Once the drakes were out of the way, our heroes moved through to the next room where they found an elderly woman awaiting their arrival.

Our woman was none other than Zerriksa, a famous witch from the town of Brindol. She was trapped in a dome of energy, being held prisoner! After studying the dome, the party tried many things to free her. Bridgette tried using force, even crashing into the cell once. Nora seemed to study it the most and, getting her timing right, pulled Zerriksa from the cell. The cell fell with a crash to the floor and Zerriksa was free! The party only needed to safely transport her and the other 8 prisoners back to Brindol…

Our adventurers headed out to the ruins of Castle Rivenroar. Upon reaching the ruins, the adventurers had learned that Hobgoblins and Goblins were guarding the castle. Finding the door locked, Nora unlocked the castle doors and our party found themselves staring into the faces of 2 goblins and 2 hobgoblins. Brazers were on either side of the door in the back and moved forward every so often firing a wall of fire across the chamber. A fight ensued and Nora was knocked unconscious. Jenks, being nearest to Nora, stabilized her to keep her alive. In the meantime, Bridgette, Ruddick, Stoobs, and Aelar kept attacking. Once the goblins were felled, the hobgoblins proved easy. Bridgette managed to intimidate them into surrendering.

The party was faced with a moral dilemma at this point. Bridgette and Jenks wanted to let the prisoners live and go free. Stoobs, Ruddick, and Nora wished to kill them so that no one would know they had entered into the ruins. Aelar chose to remain on the sideelines and let the situation work itself out. In the end, Nora secretly killed one of the prisoners. Upon noticing this, Bridgette stormed off to cool down and Jenks released the other prisoner who took off out of the castle.

Fortunately, a prisoner from the invading force had been taken, and was being held in Brindol’s stocks, ready for questioning. After a tense few moments, as well as some idle threats from Bridgette, we learned that the prisoners had been taken to Sinruth’s basecamp in the catacombs beneath Castle Rivenroar.

A crowd gathers after the adventurers defeat the ogre, and
more guards arrive a few minutes later. They imme-
diately ask for the party’s help defending the bridge.
But by the time they reach the bridge, Sinruth’s
band has already retreated. The residents of Brindol
spend the rest of the night putting out the fires that
the goblins set, tending to the wounded, and keeping
a nervous watch from the ramparts.